Laser diode health monitoring

Abstract

A method for managing optical transceivers includes obtaining laser measurements for a laser operating in an optical transceiver in a network device, obtaining a failure profile for the laser, making a first determination that the laser measurements match the failure profile, and based on the first determination, initiating a remediation action for the optical transceiver.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for managing optical transceiver operation, the method comprising:
 obtaining one or more laser measurements for an optical transceiver; 
 obtaining a failure profile based on additional laser measurements taken over a time period for a set of optical transceivers of a given optical transceiver type that have failed or were failing during the time period; and 
 initiating a remediation action for the optical transceiver based on a comparison of the obtained one or more laser measurements to the failure profile. 
 
     
     
       2. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein the failure profile comprises a pattern of laser behavior generated by a machine learning algorithm using the additional laser measurements as inputs to the machine learning algorithm. 
     
     
       3. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein initiating the remediation action for the optical transceiver occurs prior to a time at which the optical transceiver is expected to fail. 
     
     
       4. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein initiating the remediation action for the optical transceiver is in response to a deviation of the obtained one or more laser measurements from the failure profile being less than a deviation value. 
     
     
       5. The method defined in  claim 4 , wherein initiating the remediation action for the optical transceiver comprises sending a notification indicative of a network device associated with the optical transceiver for output at an output device. 
     
     
       6. The method defined in  claim 1 ,
 wherein the obtained one or more laser measurements for the optical transceiver are indicative of laser behavior of the optical transceiver over time, wherein the failure profile comprises a pattern of laser behavior indicative of laser failure for the given optical transceiver type, 
 and wherein the comparison of the obtained one or more laser measurements to the failure profile comprises a comparison of the laser behavior of the optical transceiver over time to the pattern of laser behavior indicative of laser failure for the given optical transceiver type. 
 
     
     
       7. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein the optical transceiver is of the given optical transceiver type and wherein the failure profile is specific to the given optical transceiver type. 
     
     
       8. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein the one or more laser measurements are obtained for a laser of a given laser type in the optical transceiver and wherein the failure profile is specific to the given laser type. 
     
     
       9. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein obtaining the failure profile comprises generating a pattern of laser behavior using the additional laser measurements for the set of optical transceivers. 
     
     
       10. The method defined in  claim 9  further comprising:
 updating the failure profile based on the one or more laser measurements for the optical transceiver and information indicative of the optical transceiver being in an at-risk-of-failure or failed state. 
 
     
     
       11. The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein the failure profile comprises at least one of a function of voltage over time indicative of laser failure, a function of current over time indicative of laser failure, and a function of power over time indicative of laser failure. 
     
     
       12. The method defined in  claim 11 , wherein the one or more laser measurements are each a voltage measurement, a current measurement, or a power measurement. 
     
     
       13. One or more non-transitory computer readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors for a system, cause the one or more processors to:
 obtain laser measurements for one or more optical transceivers and corresponding information indicative of whether or not each of the one or more transceivers contained a laser failure; 
 generate a failure profile using a regression algorithm with the obtained laser measurements as inputs to the regression algorithm; and 
 output a notification indicating a likelihood of a given optical transceiver to experience a failure over a future time period based on a comparison of additional laser measurements for the given optical transceiver to the failure profile. 
 
     
     
       14. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media defined in  claim 13  further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
 make a determination on whether a laser behavior indicated by the additional laser measurements for the given optical transceiver matches the failure profile. 
 
     
     
       15. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media defined in  claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the notification indicating the likelihood of the given optical transceiver to experience the failure over the future time period comprise
 computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to
 output the notification indicating the given optical transceiver is likely to experience the failure over the future time period in response to the determination indicating a match between the laser behavior and the failure profile. 
 
 
     
     
       16. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media defined in  claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to make the determination comprise
 computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors for the system, cause the one or more processors to
 determine that the laser behavior deviates from the failure profile by less than an allowable deviation. 
 
 
     
     
       17. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media defined in  claim 13 , wherein the given optical transceiver is different from the one or more optical transceivers for which the laser measurements are obtained and is of a same optical transceiver type as the one or more optical transceivers. 
     
     
       18. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media defined in  claim 13 , wherein the given optical transceiver is one of the one or more optical transceivers for which the laser measurements are obtained. 
     
     
       19. A method for managing optical transceiver operation, the method comprising:
 obtaining a failure profile based on a first laser measurement for a first laser in a first optical transceiver; 
 obtaining a second laser measurement for a second laser in a second optical transceiver; 
 initiating a remediation action for the second optical transceiver based on the failure profile and the second laser measurement; and 
 obtaining an updated failure profile by updating the failure profile using the second laser measurement for the second laser. 
 
     
     
       20. The method defined in  claim 19 , wherein the failure profile comprises laser behavior over time indicative of laser failure.